The video in the new Mini is aimed at video playback through its DVI port, and for that, it is quite nice, with hardware decoding. For games, you're right. Buy an XBox.
History has a way of changing what is "needed." Right now, pictures of Nick and Jessica are "needed" by billions. But who knows what data future historians will need?
I'm quite aware of the costs of discs versus flash memory. My point is that Sony had intellectual property they could have bundled with their Memory Sticks. That is an advantage no other hardware maker had. It didn't need to replace CDs. Just create interest, and buzz, and good will -- three things sorely lacking in Sony's current audio hardware and download schemes.
Think of it -- if a 64mb Compact Flash costs you $50, or the 64mb Memory Stick costs you $55, which one are you going to buy, if the Memory Stick includes an album? They also could have released singles and EPs on smaller sticks.
Five years ago, Sony's music labels should have started releasing all albums as mp3 on Memory Sticks. They should have released a Walkman with a Memory Stick Slot. Sony would have owned the music hardware scene, and limited-edition Memory Sticks with unique content would have established the Memory stick as the standard flash format.
But now Sony's hardware is languishing, and their Sony label artists are all sporting iPods. As the only label/hardware manufacturer, they had an undeniable advantage, and they blew it. Oh well.
then why don't they share Fair Play? Or let me manage my iTMS tracks in my preferred music jukebox app? Or let me stream non-Quick Time files to Front Row? In truth, Apple wants to control your media experience, from the initial purchase, to your living room, your bedroom, and your ride on the subway.
Sounds like newspapers. Or magazines. Or TV. How many times have you read what you thought was an original, locally-written newspaper article, only to find at the bottom a small note saying that the article was slightly modified from a wire piece from AP?
I've tried Ubuntu on four PCs (an HP Athlon, a Compaq 486, a Dell Centrino and a homegrown AMD) and I couldn't get audio to work smoothly on any of them. Audio all worked fine on all four PCs in Windows.
I already use OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird in Windows XP. I'd love to convert to Linux, but the professional audio and imaging applications are still amateur.
The Gimp can't touch Photoshop for crucial features (CMYK, Pantone, for starters), and the GUI gives me migraines. Audacity is a decent audio editor -- not as nice as Wavelab, but useable. But there are still no audio content creation tools that can hold a candle to Calkewalk's SONAR. I could go on about Nvu versus Dreamweaver, or Sodipodi versus Illustrator, but I think you get the point.
If I were a software developer, or if I just did web, email, mp3s and IM, then Linux would work for me. But there are still no killer Linux-based content creation apps.
Plays for Sure is a standard, if only in that most (all?) subscription music services use it. That includes Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo, Walmart, and certainly Urge, the new service from Microsoft and MTV. Apple's DRM cannot be a standard because it is only used by Apple itself.
Of course the only real standard is mp3, which is by far the most popular music file format. Any alternative, like AAC, WMA, OGG Vorbis, or any other, whatever its advantages, is a pretender.
The distribution is the new part. Distribution by a major corporation doesn't suggest quality of work either. Filters are necessary, but monolithic corporations are only one kind of filter. Tags, ratings and reviews are alternatives, and more will be on the way, I'm sure.
Isn't Mindawn already "built in" to every OS with a browser? How are they going to "integrate" it into Mandriva? Put a bookmark to mindawn.com on the desktop?
Evolution is not a theory. It's an observed fact. Mutations are passed on to offspring. Agriculture is based on it. Darwin's theory is not evolution, but natural selection, which is a theory that evolution through mutations is all that is necessary to provide the stunning variety of life on earth.
As long as you're ripping off the artist by buying on allofmp3, you might as well rip off the label as well, and save yourself a few cents by getting it for free.
At least your p2p download will be tracked by the label, which will make them more likely to support the artist with promotional funding (for videos, concerts, kickbacks to DJs, etc.)
It's not that the instrument permanently shifts 1/3 of an inch, it's that the samples don't give enough resolution for accurate placement of the reverberations. So the ear cannot always accurately identify the placement of the instruments, or the instrument position flutters from sample to sample.
I can't find a link right now, but there was a study in the last couple of years showing that the human ear, while not sensitive to sounds much over 20khz, is quite sensitive to the difference in timing between sounds reaching the left and right ears. The spatial resolution debate is about whether 96khz is enough, or whether 192khz is required to fool the ear into thinking it is hearing natural reverberations.
As for your 20khz ears, it's true and not true. If it's about what you hear, 20khz is sufficient for most of us, but it still creates a harsh Nyquist curve.
As for when you hear it, our ears are quite sensitive to the timing of sounds and their reflections. This is how you can hear a sound from all around you (via reverberations off other surfaces) and still know how far away and in which direction the original source is located. Sample rates higher than 20Khz are required for accurate timing of spatial data. It isn't important for electronic music, but is crucial for classical and other forms which are recorded in a complex acoustical environment.
Part of it is geek speak, but I think a large part of it is due to the cost and time involved in researching, registering and defending "traditional" names for companies and products. Odds are that no one will sue you for using the name "Ekiga," but it might take a large corporation to defend a sexy and often used word like "Rendezvous."
I like knowing who produced a track, who wrote it, who played on it, etc. I like getting album art, photographs etc. Now that artists have their own websites, this is less important than it was 20 years ago, but I still spend time in the liner notes of my CDs, especially those for indie and unsigned artists about whom it might be more difficult to get info online.
But mostly I like a physical copy of the music, and the higher fidelity that comes on a CD.
Most mainstream services don't give you even 192kbps quality. iTunesMS doesn't. Napster doesn't. Rhapsody doesn't. Or they didn't the last time I checked.
You have to move to the "indie" and "unlabel" types to get 192kbps. MP3Tunes, Emusic, and Magnatune are three examples. Oh yeah. And they don't have DRM either. Some, like Magnatune, even offer lossless downloads, like FLAC. It's interesting that currently, the higher the fidelity of the file, the less likely you are to get DRM.
But CDs created from iTMS files are inferior to regular CDs in several ways. They are CDRs, with higher fail rates, they are lower quality audio, and they don't come with reference materials like images, track listings, artist's notes, etc.
You are exactly right. I worked for ClearChannel for a few months, helping to launch one of their syndicated music shows. P2P networks were often the source of on-air material, because we could get it from the Internet faster than we could get it from the labels.
Fraunhofer is the company that owns the patent on mp3 technology, which is why your mp3 encoding software requires a paid license. This is why most Linux distributions don't come with an mp3 encoder installed.
My guess is that Fraunhofer sees the possibility of WMA and AAC files taking over the digital download scene, and they are just trying to make mp3s seem like a viable format for labels and their outlets to consider for commercial downloads. Because if everyone moves to WMA and AAC files, Fraunhofer stops getting paid for their mp3 technology.
Slashdot Mirror
The video in the new Mini is aimed at video playback through its DVI port, and for that, it is quite nice, with hardware decoding. For games, you're right. Buy an XBox.
History has a way of changing what is "needed." Right now, pictures of Nick and Jessica are "needed" by billions. But who knows what data future historians will need?
I'm quite aware of the costs of discs versus flash memory. My point is that Sony had intellectual property they could have bundled with their Memory Sticks. That is an advantage no other hardware maker had. It didn't need to replace CDs. Just create interest, and buzz, and good will -- three things sorely lacking in Sony's current audio hardware and download schemes.
Think of it -- if a 64mb Compact Flash costs you $50, or the 64mb Memory Stick costs you $55, which one are you going to buy, if the Memory Stick includes an album? They also could have released singles and EPs on smaller sticks.
Five years ago, Sony's music labels should have started releasing all albums as mp3 on Memory Sticks. They should have released a Walkman with a Memory Stick Slot. Sony would have owned the music hardware scene, and limited-edition Memory Sticks with unique content would have established the Memory stick as the standard flash format.
But now Sony's hardware is languishing, and their Sony label artists are all sporting iPods. As the only label/hardware manufacturer, they had an undeniable advantage, and they blew it. Oh well.then why don't they share Fair Play? Or let me manage my iTMS tracks in my preferred music jukebox app? Or let me stream non-Quick Time files to Front Row? In truth, Apple wants to control your media experience, from the initial purchase, to your living room, your bedroom, and your ride on the subway.
Sounds like newspapers. Or magazines. Or TV. How many times have you read what you thought was an original, locally-written newspaper article, only to find at the bottom a small note saying that the article was slightly modified from a wire piece from AP?
iPod killer? nice try. The battery life and sound quality are nice, but the inability to browse by genre, artist or album? Well, that's a death knell.
I've tried Ubuntu on four PCs (an HP Athlon, a Compaq 486, a Dell Centrino and a homegrown AMD) and I couldn't get audio to work smoothly on any of them. Audio all worked fine on all four PCs in Windows.
I already use OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird in Windows XP. I'd love to convert to Linux, but the professional audio and imaging applications are still amateur.
The Gimp can't touch Photoshop for crucial features (CMYK, Pantone, for starters), and the GUI gives me migraines. Audacity is a decent audio editor -- not as nice as Wavelab, but useable. But there are still no audio content creation tools that can hold a candle to Calkewalk's SONAR. I could go on about Nvu versus Dreamweaver, or Sodipodi versus Illustrator, but I think you get the point.
If I were a software developer, or if I just did web, email, mp3s and IM, then Linux would work for me. But there are still no killer Linux-based content creation apps.Plays for Sure is a standard, if only in that most (all?) subscription music services use it. That includes Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo, Walmart, and certainly Urge, the new service from Microsoft and MTV. Apple's DRM cannot be a standard because it is only used by Apple itself.
Of course the only real standard is mp3, which is by far the most popular music file format. Any alternative, like AAC, WMA, OGG Vorbis, or any other, whatever its advantages, is a pretender.The distribution is the new part. Distribution by a major corporation doesn't suggest quality of work either. Filters are necessary, but monolithic corporations are only one kind of filter. Tags, ratings and reviews are alternatives, and more will be on the way, I'm sure.
Content creators and content consumers are becoming one and the same. You can see this every day on sites like Jamendo and Flickr.
Isn't Mindawn already "built in" to every OS with a browser? How are they going to "integrate" it into Mandriva? Put a bookmark to mindawn.com on the desktop?
Evolution is not a theory. It's an observed fact. Mutations are passed on to offspring. Agriculture is based on it. Darwin's theory is not evolution, but natural selection, which is a theory that evolution through mutations is all that is necessary to provide the stunning variety of life on earth.
As long as you're ripping off the artist by buying on allofmp3, you might as well rip off the label as well, and save yourself a few cents by getting it for free.
At least your p2p download will be tracked by the label, which will make them more likely to support the artist with promotional funding (for videos, concerts, kickbacks to DJs, etc.)It's not that the instrument permanently shifts 1/3 of an inch, it's that the samples don't give enough resolution for accurate placement of the reverberations. So the ear cannot always accurately identify the placement of the instruments, or the instrument position flutters from sample to sample.
I can't find a link right now, but there was a study in the last couple of years showing that the human ear, while not sensitive to sounds much over 20khz, is quite sensitive to the difference in timing between sounds reaching the left and right ears. The spatial resolution debate is about whether 96khz is enough, or whether 192khz is required to fool the ear into thinking it is hearing natural reverberations.As for your 20khz ears, it's true and not true. If it's about what you hear, 20khz is sufficient for most of us, but it still creates a harsh Nyquist curve.
As for when you hear it, our ears are quite sensitive to the timing of sounds and their reflections. This is how you can hear a sound from all around you (via reverberations off other surfaces) and still know how far away and in which direction the original source is located. Sample rates higher than 20Khz are required for accurate timing of spatial data. It isn't important for electronic music, but is crucial for classical and other forms which are recorded in a complex acoustical environment.Part of it is geek speak, but I think a large part of it is due to the cost and time involved in researching, registering and defending "traditional" names for companies and products. Odds are that no one will sue you for using the name "Ekiga," but it might take a large corporation to defend a sexy and often used word like "Rendezvous."
I like knowing who produced a track, who wrote it, who played on it, etc. I like getting album art, photographs etc. Now that artists have their own websites, this is less important than it was 20 years ago, but I still spend time in the liner notes of my CDs, especially those for indie and unsigned artists about whom it might be more difficult to get info online. But mostly I like a physical copy of the music, and the higher fidelity that comes on a CD.
Most mainstream services don't give you even 192kbps quality. iTunesMS doesn't. Napster doesn't. Rhapsody doesn't. Or they didn't the last time I checked.
You have to move to the "indie" and "unlabel" types to get 192kbps. MP3Tunes, Emusic, and Magnatune are three examples. Oh yeah. And they don't have DRM either. Some, like Magnatune, even offer lossless downloads, like FLAC. It's interesting that currently, the higher the fidelity of the file, the less likely you are to get DRM.
But CDs created from iTMS files are inferior to regular CDs in several ways. They are CDRs, with higher fail rates, they are lower quality audio, and they don't come with reference materials like images, track listings, artist's notes, etc.
Much of the music on Emusic is from RIAA labels. They're still taking your money.
You are exactly right. I worked for ClearChannel for a few months, helping to launch one of their syndicated music shows. P2P networks were often the source of on-air material, because we could get it from the Internet faster than we could get it from the labels.
Fraunhofer is the company that owns the patent on mp3 technology, which is why your mp3 encoding software requires a paid license. This is why most Linux distributions don't come with an mp3 encoder installed.
My guess is that Fraunhofer sees the possibility of WMA and AAC files taking over the digital download scene, and they are just trying to make mp3s seem like a viable format for labels and their outlets to consider for commercial downloads. Because if everyone moves to WMA and AAC files, Fraunhofer stops getting paid for their mp3 technology.